818-666-5028

This number has called many people looking for a pay day loan.  These men pretend they has your info and want you to verify.  but you end up giving info that they need to get your money out of your account.  I must watch my account to try to beat them.  Do fall for the accent.  They sound India.  They are crooks

Please check the phony web address they give.  Liberty Phone Loan. I hope I did not check too late.

I rec'd a call today from a man named Eric Williams (or something like that); but, he had an Indian accent.  He said that I had contacted their webiste for a payday loan.  I told him that I did not and to please put me on the "Do NOT Call List."  he said that they would.  He then started asking questions about a family member.  I told him "Good bye!" and hung up.
I received another call about 45 mins later from the same people, but I did not answer it.
Beware of these people!

A man name Erick smith called me today from that number.  I was so in need of a loan they got me. I wish I would have knew of this site before now! Is there anything that can be done, please reply at zydeshia @gmail.com

they keep calling me at least 10 times a day and I have told them to stop and that I was on the national no call list (which is true),  I even filed a complaint with the govt.  I still get them calling.

These people are constantly harassing me by calling my phone. I want them to stop. They are crooks

These are Identity theft scammers.  Don't trust them.

I had 15 calls from them in a matter of 3 hours! I answered the first time, and politely told the gentleman I was not who he was looking for, but they kept calling. I did not catch his name because the accent was so hard to understand. Incredibly rude to keep calling me after I had asked them not to.

these [***] call me all the time saying i applied for a loan its to bad the police wont do [***] about these scammers

I have been getting numerous calls from this number lately. So far they have called me 20 TIMES in the last 2 days!! They are definitely scam artists and sometimes they even call late at night. Watch out for these people calling and harassing you. Many of them that call are Indian and usually when you call back, the number does not exist.

These [***] got us. They even gave us a bogus address in Encino to come to speak to them face to face which was not the company. Don't get caught up, if I could find them I would. There ought to be a way to stop these scammers!

Yes the got me too...The guy told me his name was Adam Jones..I feel so stupid..now I have to figure out a way to tell my husband..

Getting repeated calls from 818-666-5028

You can join legal shield they get results you can also call the number and blast loud music in their ear all day long harass them like they r harassing you. There is Aldo a free app for your mobile phone mobile manager it blocks any type of call u do not want fromone digest to ten even private it is free

You can join legal shield they get results you can also call the number and blast loud music in their ear all day long harass them like they r harassing you. There io a free app for your mobile phone mobile manager it blocks any type of call u do not want from one number to ten or more even private numbers it blocks them from your phone and Sims card 3149942013 the number legal shield

I took a payday loan from another company for travel expenses for work (stupid on my part).  This company keeps calling me, never leaves a message.  Same # all the time.  Problem is the voicemail they leave is only a beep.  When I try calling back I never get anyone to tell them to leave me alone.  Worst mistake I ever made.

I have had them call me many times and told them to stop calling me that I have found out there scammers the guy called one time then hung up so I called back to tell him to stop calling and I told this guy that they needed to stop scamming people and stop tring to scam me he told me then why the f*** are you calling me if found out it was a scam.  Becareful he said it was consumer payday loans the other number that they will call you from is 202-657-4474 do not trust them they want you to send money to India western union for a loan and say you will receive it back in a few mins with the loan amount and a lot of these people will tell you that the security you sent for the loan they had made a mistake with the security company and want you to send more money that of course you want never receive. everyone have a blessed day and lets all try to work together to stop these lazy foreign  b*st*rds

i applied for a day loan from another company and some how this number got my information. they have been harassing me at my job calling back to back and it is so embarrasing that i have my managers involved. these people said they are from the united states collection agency and under section blank article something they have the right to collect your debt! if i paid them 700 dollars. they are a scam and will even argue back when you tell them that. mean while i hear people in the background saying just hang up the phone. my job had to tell them i was fired just to stop the calls

Phantom Debt Collectors From India Harass Americans, Demand Money

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , CINDY GALLI and MATTHEW MOSK (@mattmosk)
June 7, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans -- especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims -- even when the victims never owed money in the first place.

"This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam," said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud."

Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband's car was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance.

Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called "phantom" debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.

He more or less told me that if I didn't pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me," she told ABC News. "And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am."

At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.

"I was more or less was in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail," she said tearfully. "So I agreed to pay him."

After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.

"I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz.

ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.

"I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody," Ellis said. "He's a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He's completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem."

A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone -- he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

"If Mr. Patel was just a cog in the wheel he seems to have been a pretty big cog," Leibowitz said. "It is clear that Patel was integrally involved with this scam."

Leibowitz points to thousands of pages of financial and phone records gathered by the FTC and filed as part of a civil case brought against him in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento last month. When FTC lawyers sought to freeze his assets and prevent his business from continuing to operate, Patel responded by invoking his rights against self-incrimination. His lawyer told ABC News he has had to be careful in how he responds to the allegations in civil court "because there is a potential criminal action," but that Patel maintains the allegations against him are false.

Federal investigators said the phantom debt collection operation that allegedly benefitted from Patel's assistance was one of several that all trace back to the same small town in Western India called Ahmedabad. Callers use technology to make it appear that the calls originate inside the U.S. Victims provided ABC News with recordings of dozens of the calls, and many of the thickly accented callers appear to be reading off a script.

"Subpoenas have been readied, and Monday morning you're going to be picked up from your home," one caller says on a victim's voicemail. "And you have children. Don't worry about your children. We have a childcare department to take care of the children."

"You will be behind bars for six months," said another caller. "And once you go behind bars, you will lose your job. Once you are behind the bars, you won't get a single drop of water."

William Peerce Howard, a Tampa attorney who represents victims of harassment from debt collectors, said it takes an especially twisted criminal to use threats and coercion to pry money from someone who is already struggling financially

"These guys really are the most visible villains in America today," he said. "They make a living scaring people."

Mark Merola, of Florida, said he just panicked when the caller told him he might be arrested at the deli where he works in a Florida retirement community.

"I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself, my family," he said. He used his debit card to pay the collector $576.

Afterwards, he says he realized "how stupid I was."

"It just happened so fast," he said. "I got scared."

Leibowitz said he hopes with more attention, future potential targets of the scam will recognize red flags before they turn over any money.

If callers say they are from the police, consumers should know that law enforcement officers do not collect debt for private parties. If the caller is speaking with a thick Indian accent, but calls themselves by a names such as Officer Mike Johnson, that should be a tip off. And if they're calling 40 times in two hours, that's another red flag. "Legitimate debt collectors, legitimate pay day lenders don't do those sorts of things," he said.

Merola said he would like to see anyone involved in the scam prosecuted aggressively.

"There's no place in society for these people," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=2